Basics for the Filipino Newbie Blogger

For you, the Filipino newbie blogger, writing a blog is very simple. Consider only these 4 aspects:

1. A space to log the blog.
2. A manageable theme to blog about.
   
3. The time to do blogging.
4. The drive to do the blogging consistently and regularly.

THE SPACE

Web logs (blogs) are thoughts and ideas put into writing. As such, space on which to write on is an obvious requirement. In blogging, these spaces are available in many platforms.

There are many platforms available for you. Some of them are: Xanga, Multiply, the popular Wordpress, Mindsay, LiveJournal, Movable Type, and the all time favorite of freeloaders, Blogger.

While I cannot tell you which platform to use (as I do not know your level of expertise as well as your objectives for starting a blog) I would unabashedly recommend Blogger for any newbie blog writer. It is so easy to use, enrollment is done in three steps. Plus, like anyone new to any endeavor, mistakes and revisions are made but with Blogger it is very easy to edit a post, a link, an uploaded image and even the template itself!


THE THEME

There are sooo many things to blog about (again, far numerous than our islands, be it hightide or lowtide). It is tempting to embrace a lot of themes, thinking that your interests are as varied as the Philippine flora and fauna anyway, so why not? But again a cliche rings true: "Huwag kaangan ang lahat ng bagay at baka ika'y magtibaro!" Literal translation: Do not spread your legs too wide to accomodate a lot of things or you might fall flat on your face! (Unless you are a ballerina or Mystica, that is.)

As a general rule, your blog should have a particular theme to ensure that it will not have a dissipated effect much like a sari-sari store with all its selection but no distinctive identity to call its own.


Having a central theme helps you, the newbie blogger, in at least two areas:

• Manageability - Avoid spreading yourself and your topics on too wide an area. Remember that writing your blog with your readers in mind means that you have to give them quality content each and every time. When aiming for such a goal and you have a very broad field to tackle, covering all bases at all times may prove to be too tasking and time consuming in the long run.

Remember, you are in this for fun as well, so do not save the world all by yourself!

• Pigeonhole Marketing- You may call it the niche marketing. (I like to call it pigeonhole, so as to be more illustrative.) For example, there are blogs about dogs and dog breeds but yours is about Chow Chow (a particular breed). A person who is interested about Chow Chows would be more inclined to read your specialized blog on this breed as against the other blogs which covers a more general view on dogs and their kinds.

The benefit of this is that your blog gets to the top of the search on that particular narrow theme you have as not everyone is into it, thus the competition is not as stiff. This is particularly good for b-blogging (or business blogging).



THE TIME

From the onset, decide how frequent your "blog issues" will be based on the available time you have. Could you write once or twice a week? Every Wednesday at 10am or every Sunday afternoon after church services?

Indirectly correlated to this is the length of your articles. Depending on your expertise on the chosen theme and topic, a 300-500 word article may be written in as short as 5 minutes, slow typing skill notwithstanding.

The frequency and regularity of your blog issues will contribute to the increase rate of your blog's readership. Once a blog visitor gets interested in your site, he/she may bookmark it or subscribe to its RSS feed with the expectation that you are posting regularly and frequently. (Yes, once every 90th day, is technically regular but not frequent enough to hold the interest of your readers unless your blog is a stocks increase quarterly report.)

(I am guilty of such a sin also, as I lag behind schedule in updating my blog sites. Time to practice what I blog! )



THE DRIVE

Many blogs have been left orphaned in cyberspace. Their human authors left them due, in part , to the lack of sustainable drive: writer's block, fad waned, ningas cogon, etc. You, the Filipino newbie blogger may have none of this yet, as you are still too enthusiastic to feel the yoke of blogging for an audience (or lack thereof).

It is important that on the onset, goals should be established and realistic expectations should be acknowledged. The following may help:

• Having an interesting theme from which to mine rich posts.
  
• Sticking to the central theme.
• Commit to shorter and concise posts.
• Look at a different angle on issues to make posts interesting.
• Invite a friend to contribute a post. Or have team mates post on one blog.
• Posting interesting images (but still related to theme or topic) may make up for the short posts from time to time. But, doing such always may turn your blog into a photoblog, if it isn't a photoblog in the first place.
• Read, read, read. Be aware of your surroundings and keep interested in a lot of things.
  

Get your blog planned now!